In theater

"Dear Harvey: You had to go get yourself killed for being a faygeleh? You couldn't let somebody else have such a great honor? Alright, alright, so you liked the boys, I wasn't wild about the idea. But I got used to it. I never said you wasn't welcome in my house, did I?" So goes a passage from A Letter to Harvey Milk, the stage adaptation of the short story by Leslea Neman, author of the PTA favorite Heather Has Two Mommies. Harvey Milk was a charismatic leader who did as much for gay politics in San Francisco as anybody in the '70s. He turned politics on its ear by running for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, trying three times until he finally won in 1977, making him the first openly gay elected city official ever. When former City Supervisor, ex-cop and fireman Dan White snuck into City Hall on November 28, 1978 and assassinated Milk and the popular Mayor Mascone, the city was left in shock, and gay politics lost its leading light. A Letter to Harvey Milk, performed by Yaron Schweizer (pictured), is a one-man show telling the story of a Jewish man's journey from Poland to San Francisco, from the Holocaust to the struggle for gay rights. The play will be performed as part of Manbites Dog's "Don't Ask/Don't Tell 2002: A Festival of Queer Theater and Performance," June 13-16, at the Manbites Dog Theater in Durham. Call 682-3343 for details.